Voyager 1
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Voyager 1, robotic U.S. interplanetary probe launched in 1977 that visited Jupiter and Saturn and was the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space.
Voyager 1 was part of a twin-spacecraft mission with Voyager 2. The twin-spacecraft mission took advantage of a rare orbital positioning of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune that permitted a multiplanet tour with relatively low fuel requirements and flight time. The alignment allowed each spacecraft, following a particular trajectory, to use its fall into a planet’s gravitational field to increase its velocity and alter its direction enough to fling it to its next destination. Voyager 2 was launched first, on August 20, 1977; Voyager 1 followed some two weeks later, on September 5. Using this gravity-assist, or slingshot, technique, Voyager 1 swung by Jupiter on March 5, 1979, and then headed for Saturn, which it reached on November 12, 1980. It then adopted a trajectory to take it out of the solar system. (Voyager 2 went on to visit Uranus and Neptune after its visits to Jupiter and Saturn.)
Data and photographs collected by the Voyagers’ cameras, magnetometers, and other instruments revealed previously unknown details about each of the giant planets and their moons. For example, close-up images from the spacecraft charted Jupiter’s complex cloud forms, winds, and storm systems and discovered a ring around Jupiter and volcanic activity on its moon Io, the first volcanic activity observed beyond Earth. Saturn’s rings were found to have enigmatic braids and kinks and to be accompanied by myriad “ringlets.”
On February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 overtook the space probe Pioneer 10 (launched 1972) to become the most distant human-made object in space. By 2004 both Voyagers were well beyond the orbit of Pluto. In 2012 the Voyagers became the longest-operating spacecraft, having functioned for 35 years and still periodically transmitting data. On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 became the first space probe to enter interstellar space when it crossed the heliopause, the outer limit of the Sun’s magnetic field and solar wind. The Voyagers were expected to remain operable through 2030. Each craft carried a greeting to any form of extraterrestrial intelligence that might eventually find it. A gold-plated copper phonograph record—accompanied by a cartridge, needle, and symbolic instructions for playing it—contained images and sounds chosen to depict the diversity of life and culture on Earth.